QualiTest Hosts STAR Testing Event: “Making Agile Work for You”

On Wednesday 19th March 2014 at One Alfred Place, QualiTest presented a morning event which brought together expertise to discuss pragmatic approaches and practices for Agile development and testing today.

With an audience of 60 IT and development leaders across a diverse range of market sectors, there was no shortage of stimulating questions, comments, and challenges for the speakers. Facilitated by QualiTest’s UK’s VP Richard Morgan, they were able to apply real world examples to guide and advise the gathered professionals on the uses of Agile methodologies across many industries.

“This was by far our best attended event to date, showing the high level of interest in agile across industries and organisational roles. Over a decade in and agile is still very much at the forefront of everyone’s mind. The giffgaff presentation, delivered in three agile sprints, brought the way-of-working to life for everyone. The combination of the practical experience from Cameron at giffgaff and Johanna’s vast knowledge of agile made the day for me, and the furious scribbling of delegates demonstrated the value of the event,” said Richard Morgan, VP, QualiTest UK and facilitator of the event.

Judging by the capacity attendance and the interest in the room, QualiTest hit the mark with the relevance of the subject matter and the quality of the speakers. This was backed up by a survey which took place in the room, to be collated and published imminently. The survey showed that even in the highly regulated industries there is a desire to adopt more agile principles, and almost all attendees felt that there was significant scope for an increase in the adoption of Agile practices within their organisations. Most recognised that the key factor holding their business back in this regard is the need for cultural change, as Agile is all about the people. To view the results of this survey, please click here. Or, if you would prefer to watch the event itself, we have added videos to our QualiTest TV Section here.

A panel discussion followed the presentations, which covered questions gathered throughout the morning via an Agile Kanban board, progressing through the phases until completed to the audience’s satisfaction.

David Cotterell, QualiTest European Director and UK Chairman, confirmed that in the near term, we expect to publish a case study supporting the advantages of agile, which will be available to our community of clients, partners, and contacts.

QualiTest’s next STAR Testing event will deal with issues of privacy and security, and will occur on Thursday, 18th September in London. If you would like to register early for this event, please click here.

Title: Making Agile Work for Everyone

QualiTest has worked with Johanna on a number of occasions with our staff base and clients alike receiving Agile training workshops.

Cameron Black, Head of Development, giffgaff

Title: Adapting to Agile

Agile development methodologies can be more effective at delivering. Agile certainly delivers what’s required quicker and in a more flexible way. However, agile methodologies can pose different challenges to traditional development methods. Learn from some of giffgaff’s experience: the benefits of agile; some things to consider before you venture into agile; how agile works with large organisations and possibly most important of all, about the culture and people that make agile a success.

QualiTest have enjoyed a long relationship with giffgaff, providing testing services from their launch through to present day, and are looking forward to working with them more in the future.

Testimonials

“The event was really well put together – the speakers were well-respected and made a good double-act! The mix of expert and user experience worked well. It was an interesting subject.” -Hazel Buckthorpe, Pelicam

“It was a very interesting day – thank you. A good balance of ideal agile and real life experience from Johanna and Cameron, some great take outs for us.” -Trudie Fell, 3 Mobile

“As a leading pure play testing consultancy which constantly seeks to identify business value wherever QualiTest is engaged, we believe that Agile is attractive because it is a business model which recognises real life challenges. From a testing standpoint, it opens up the opportunity to introduce test-driven development at a much earlier stage, highlighting issues quicker and resulting in projects being delivered on time, in budget, and with zero material defects.” -David Cotterell, QualiTest European Director and UK Chairman.”